Martial arts can help you lose weight and build muscles, especially if you are just beginning to practice. But, as you advance, you’ll have to implement strength training to gain more muscle, and you’ll need to burn more calories than you take in to lose weight.

Yes, Karate is a great way to build lean muscle (think Bruce Lee instead of Arnold Schwarzenegger). In particular, Karate is a perfect way to build up your core and legs while not neglecting your upper body. Let’s talk about different exercises Karate uses to build muscle through training, core work, and cardio.

Training is interesting since you will have to build strong toned legs, increase your agility and flexibility, but the benefits are worth it. One of the best martial arts to get into shape ,as the whole body is being exercised, from fingers to toes, thus creating lean fat free tissue.

Though the muscles used most in martial arts depend on the form being used, most of the muscles groups are used to some degree. The most common muscles are the deltoids, abs, hamstrings, pectorals, biceps, triceps, quadriceps, hips, gluteus maximus, and calf muscles.

If you want to be a martial arts teacher, or professional fighter, you should be training at least 5 days a week for 2-4 hours each session. If martial arts are your hobby, I recommend practicing at home 2-3 times a week for at least an hour at a time.

Normally, someone new to Karate classes will attend one session per week in the beginning, as the student progresses this will obviously increase. I personally recommend training one karate for beginners session per week for the first three to six months, after this, a minimum of two lessons per week is essential.

Bottom line: How long does it take to learn a martial art with basic proficiency? 29 hours on average. Assuming that you are training two sessions of one hour each week, you will take roughly 3 to 4 months to be good enough. However, being complacent in training will make you lose your competency very quickly.

Sifu’s Grandmaster, Master Kong Hing, always said that a training session early in the morning is worth 6 times more than a training session in the evening. This is because your body is still ‘warming up’, the air is cooler and you are working against higher resistance both in the mind and within the body.

Most practitioners train in Taekwondo 2-3 times per week. However, for those with the goal of competing at Taekwondo in the Olympics, training four to five days a week, and starting at a young age is necessary.